


Sleep

by babybluecas



Series: and so you fell [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, M/M, MOL Bunker, Nightmares, One Shot, Post Season 8, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed, fallen!cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 04:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babybluecas/pseuds/babybluecas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to a small accident, Cas ends up in Dean’s bedroom and Sam might have gotten a wrong idea. Fluff ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep

Dean’s wide awake and up on his feet before he can fully register what it was that woke him. A loud thud, he realizes, already out the door, and a muffled scream shut into silence. This can’t be good, this is never good. He knows screams, they’ve accompanied his life since he could remember and they only ever meant trouble, at best.

And it’s not just the matter of the scream itself. There have been screams in the bunker lately, carried through the corridors, seeping from Cas’s nightmares straight into Dean’s. But those yells Dean’s come to learn, too, through the nights when he ended up at Cas’s bedside. They are distinct: low growls and high cries of a trapped man on the run.

This scream was ragged and sharp, borne with violence and cut short. And the silence - the silence is something to be worried about, too. A reason enough to race across the dark hallway and hit the door at the peak of alertness.

Dean barges into Cas’s bedroom, expecting the worst. With clenched jaw, he flicks on the light. He breaths out, relieved. There’s no sign of blood or fight. There’s only Cas with his eyes wide and confused, sitting in the middle of what used to be his bed, now is just a mess; a skewed mattress with one side on the floor, the other on the broken frame. He’s safe and sound, if startled by his sudden trip to the ground that ripped him out of a dream.

Dean bursts out laughing stuck in the doorway and it takes him a moment to collect himself and rush to Cas’s side. He leans to rescue him from tangled sheets and pulls him out of the bed wreckage, making sure he doesn’t hurt himself on the cracked bed frame.

"I don't know what happened," Cas murmurs.

He’s still halfway on the other side of consciousness, looking around the room, as if trying to figure out how he went from sleeping, to an epic crash, to standing barefoot in Dean’s loose embrace.

Dean grunts awkwardly and lets go of Cas’s flannel-clad waist.

“Yeah, Cas, how the hell did you manage to break your bed?” He raises an eyebrow, cutting down on the amusement, only letting it play on the corners of his lips.

“I’m sorry, Dean, I-“

“Oh.”

They both turn their eyes toward the surprised voice from the doorway, to see Sam’s embarrassed face, hidden in his flawless, bed-mussed hair.

“I don’t think I wanna know what you did with the bed.”

And with that he’s quickly gone, leaving Dean slightly astounded and speechless, because he didn’t direct the ‘you’ at both of them, did he?

“Dean.”

Reminded of Cas’s presence and the bed problem, Dean smiles at the poor guy.

“S’okay, Cas, the wood must’ve been rotten,” he says, grabbing Cas’s bedding. “Sorry, I should’ve checked. All the stuff here’s pretty old.”

“Where are you going?” Cas asks, but he follows him through the hallway to the bedroom Cas knows pretty well.

“We don’t have any other habitable beds at the moment,” Dean throws Cas’s stuff on his own memory foam mattress, “so you’ll crash here for tonight.”

Cas doesn’t respond until Dean starts gathering his own sheets.

“Where will you sleep?” He sits down on the edge of the mattress, hesitant.

“That’s what sofas are for.”

Cas grasps Dean’s wrist as the man reaches for the pillow and lets go of it just as quickly.

“I had a nightmare,” he confesses, although that’s hardly a shocker.

It’s been weeks of sleepless nights and Dean calming Cas down and lulling him back to sleep to the embarrassment of the both of them. It’s been going progressively better, though. With a use of some psychology tricks off the Internet, Cas began to distinguish the vivid nightmares from the reality.

Dean throws the sheets back and climbs on the bed. As Cas turns to him, his bare knee bumps against Dean’s.

“That would kinda explain the bed.” Dean smirks, but more seriously adds, “You know it was just a dream.”

“I know, Dean. It’s just-” He sighs heavily and rubs at his face. “It was different.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dean sends him his most understanding look and waits for Cas to elaborate.

“When I’m lying in bed, I concentrate on that thought, that I am here, in the bunker. So when the next thing I know is endless running or angels or- Then some part of my subconsciousness remembers that something’s not right.”

“That’s good, Cas. Just give it time.”

“It’s not about time. They’ve changed. Recently they aren’t about me, they’re..." Cas trails off and looks down at his knees.

Dean's hand automatically reaches out to Cas' shoulder.

“About what?” he encourages.

“They’re about you,” Cas murmurs in answer.

Dean takes in a sharp breath, then smiles softly.

“Is that why you’ve been peeking into my room at nights?”

Cas’s face goes red with embarrassment, as he mutters a quiet apology, but Dean is amused not angry. At first he felt uncomfortable when he saw a figure peeking into his room, but he never said a thing. After all, mom used to say that angels are watching over him. Now he has his own fallen angel to do so.

“Nah, not what I meant Cas.” He cocks his head to look Cas in the eyes and waits for him to follow. “You were making sure I’m okay.”

“Yes.” Cas visibly fights the urge to look away. “Every time I woke up I- I just couldn’t get back to sleep. And I tried. I told myself it was just a dream and that nothing bad can happen to you here. But that feeling- it just wouldn’t go away.”

Dean pulls himself off the bed and, to Castiel’s evident surprise, starts rearranging the sheets on the bed.

“I know that feeling too well,” he admits, putting their pillows next to each other and sitting back down, comfortably.

He pats the mattress, invitingly and doesn’t continue until Cas joins him.

“There were times when I’d have nightmares about Sam; dying or kidnapped, night after night,” Dean starts quietly, like he’s spilling out his big secret. “Especially when we were younger. I’d wake up, drained in sweat, but then I’d look at the bed beside mine and he was always there, breathing, so I knew all was good.”

Cas listens attentively, his eyes fixed on Dean. Dean shifts, to turn his face to Cas, but then he looks down, shyly.

“So there was this one time, I was like… fifteen? So I was too old for that stuff, right? For some time we squatted in this old house, with a lot of rooms. For the first time in a long time I slept alone in a room. And then I woke up from this terrible nightmare and there was no Sammy in the room. I freaked out. I tried not to freak out, but I did. So I went down the hallway and found his room and of course Sammy had to catch me.”

Dean hides a fond smile at the memory.

“What happened then?” Cas asks impatiently.

“Then my stupid, little brother moved to make some space for me in his bed. Without a question or a comment or even a smirk.”

“Did that solve your problem?”

“Yeah, we kinda slept like that for the rest of the stay and I didn’t have a nightmare once, so…” He flashes a smug smile and pulls up his covers. “I thought it might work for you too.”

“Do you mean…?” Luckily, Cas quickly catches his drift and looks at him shocked.

“Yup, this bed’s big enough, so as long as you don’t steal my covers, we’re good.”

“Are you sure?”

Oh boy, is he not sure. There have been way too many times that his spontaneity led him to bed, but never like that, never just to actually sleep. And never with Cas. But when he looked at the poor bastard’s miserable face, he got that stupid idea and he didn’t bite his tongue in time. And now he just can’t say no. Even if every cell in his body is telling him that it’s not a good idea.

Because it’s Cas.

But on the other hand, it’s Cas. So if there’s anything Dean can do to help the guy, he will. And so he nods and watches a thankful smile grow on Castiel’s face, as he puts his head on the soft pillow.

“Thank you, Dean,” he whispers.

“Yeah,” Dean murmurs, lying on his back. “But if you tell Sam about it, you’ll be sleeping in the bathtub,” he jokes and hears Cas huff out a laugh.

“I promise,” he says amused, and Dean takes a quick peek at him, before turning the light off.

Complete darkness floods the room and it almost feels like nothing has changed. Almost, because now the silence is cut with two easy breaths instead of one and the temperature at his side’s just a little bit higher. It doesn’t take Cas long to fall asleep again, his breathing slows, his tiny moves are reflected in the mattress. Dean follows soon after, and until the very morning there are no more cries stirring him in his shallow sleep.

  
  



End file.
